


Eye of the Beholder

by WaywardPrimrose



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Friendship, M/M, UST, bunkerfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-18
Updated: 2014-05-18
Packaged: 2018-01-25 13:12:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1649843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WaywardPrimrose/pseuds/WaywardPrimrose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post 9x21. Cas has moved into the bunker. Dean is not sure what to make of Cas’ choice of decorations. Two shot. First scene is Dean/Cas friendship/UST, the second is Dean, Cas and Sam schmoopy fluff.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Eye of the Beholder

Spoilers: Assume spoilers up to and including 9x21. Also spoilers for the Star Wars films (1-6). 

* * *

“Dude, what is that?” Dean asked shocked. 

“It’s a oil painting, by your standards it is very old, by mine it is relatively recent, I found in the antique store Sam and I visited yesterday.” 

“You went antiquing with Sam?”

“We were searching for a talisman Sam saw advertised online, he was concerned it might be cursed or at least powerful in some manner.” 

“Ah, cool... But that doesn’t really explain…. dude its… its a painting of naked dudes.” 

“I purchased it.”

“Because?”

“I thought now that I had my own room here I should decorate, you said the space was mine to use as I wished.” Castiel was beginning to look annoyed. 

“Sure it’s your room, do what you want, but it’s practically gay porn man. On your wall.” 

“I’ve told you before Dean, sexuality is of no consequence to me. I am equally comfortable with both the masculine and feminine forms of humanity. Angels are not defined by their preferences for sexual or other pleasures. Does this make you uncomfortable? 

Dean took a deep breath, looked as if he was going to speak, and then halted and exhaled slowly before finally saying, “No. No. I’m cool.” He really wanted to look like he was cool with it. Teasing Sam was one thing, but he only made fun of Sam for being ‘gay’ because they both knew it was a joke. It was how brothers talked to each other, at least in the world Dean had been raised in. Dean was John Winchesters son, but an Angel of the Lord was standing before him practically coming out of the closet or rather trying to explain that to him, the closet didn’t exist, there was no sides, no ‘teams,’ people were just people, and angels weren’t people. Dean didn’t want to look like a total dick so he was going to man up and be cool with this, after all, how much time did he have to spend in Castiel’s room anyway?

“I also purchased a television, would you like to stay and watch Star Wars? I’m not sure my understanding of the text is clear from the information that Metatron provided me with. I believe there is an empathetic experience involved in the watching of film and television programs which can not be mimicked by a mere transference of data.” 

“Well yeah, duh. I tried to tell you, it’s not just knowing the storyline, its sitting there on the edge of your seat when Luke and Han fly in there shooting and caring about what happens to them.” 

“Will you show me?” 

“Ah sure, I’ll just,….” Dean’s eyes cast around, the only place to sit was the double bed in the middle of the room. But they’d sat on plenty of beds in plenty of motel rooms, it didn’t have to be weird. Of course the hotels they stayed in didn’t normally have classical oil painting of naked men on the walls, but Dean was more evolved than that… right? He could be cool, he would be cool, hell he was going to be watching Star Wars with Cas which was right up there on his bucket list behind killing Abaddon and making Sam get a hair cut. 

The two men settled down on the bed and the familiar yellow text began flying across the screen. Dean was pleased Cas had started at Episode 4 and not the new movies. Chronology be damned, you had to start with the classics. 

Dean was surprised with Cas’ mouth quirked moved into a smirk as C3P0 and R2D2 bickered like an old married couple. Sure they teased Cas about needing to learn about popular culture but he’d kind of always wondered if it would even be possible for Cas to understand the jokes and dramatic highs and lows of a good film. When Cas bristled darkly when Darth Vader threated Leia Dean knew that the angel ‘got it.’ They’d all had their moment of going dark side and none of them liked the consequences. Dean tried not to think too much about how Anakin loosing touch with his humanity reminded him of how Sam had been swept away by the power offered by demon blood, or how Cas had been corrupted by the Leviathans inside him,… or more recently how he himself had experienced the dark lure of the First Blade. The difference was that each time Sam or Cas or Dean was lured by the dark side they were pulled back by their friendships with each other. Dean was not going to be Anakin Skywalker, he was Han Solo damn it. Sam obviously was Luke – idealistic and wet behind the ears in the beginning, the little brother type, but eventually a hero in his own right. What did that make Cas? It really only left Leia or Chewy…. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to try comparing real life to Star Wars…. Though watching Leia defy Vader, even though she was captured and completely vulnerable…. It wasn’t totally unlike Cas… 

Dean wasn’t sure why he glanced at the stupid painting on the wall again. It wasn’t even ugly, I mean clearly the guy who painted it had some skill with a brush, and the play of sunlight on the leaves and the dude’s bodies was… sunny? Who knew, Sam was the one who understood that crap. It was just the subject of the artwork was… different… not that Dean was a prude, I mean the guy had watched some seriously weird porn over the years. Nothing much shocked him. 

So it wasn’t really the painting that shocked him.

It was that Cas had chosen it. Liked it. Hung it up in his room. 

“If you don’t like it I can remove it, but I actually chose it because it reminded me of you,” Cas admitted, noticing Dean was staring at the painting instead of the movie. 

“You what?... It does?” 

Cas gestured at the second male form in the painting, “A green eyed man, strong but vulnerable, it reminded me of when we first met,” Cas explained. “Only the painting is a far happier scene than what I saw when I found you in hell,” he added unnecessarily. 

“Yeah just a bit. You really think he looks like me?” Dean sounded oddly hopeful. The dude was built. There were worse people to be compared to. 

“A little…. You are far more attractive.” 

Well now Dean was blushing. He forced himself to stare intently at the television screen, ignoring the painting and pretending not to notice the blue-eyed man sitting right beside him, their hands laid side by side on the bedspread, close but not touching, the inch of space between them suddenly feeling important. Dean wasn’t sure why, didn’t really understand why things with Cas could be so simple and so complicated at the same time, so he chose to focus on the simple part, the part that he understood – loyalty, friendship and watching Star Wars. 

 

* * * 

 

A knock interrupted them half way through the movie. “Come in,” Cas called. 

Sam opened the door and stuck his head in cautiously. He was surprised by what he saw, his eyes darting around the room, from the painting to the television set, to the bed the angel and his brother were propped up on. “Oh hey, I just wanted to, it doesn’t matter…” Sam went to leave. 

“Wait, what’s up?” Dean asked annoyed. Why did Sam have to be such a drama queen about everything?” 

“It’s okay, I didn’t want to interrupt your… date,” Sam smirked. 

“It’s not a date,” Dean countered throwing a pillow at his brother. 

“Kind of looks like a date.” 

“ Shut up bitch, go and get a chair and watch with us, unless the apocalypse is happening right now we’re finishing this movie and no way this bed is going to hold three of us.” 

Sam smiled. “If you’re sure, I’d hate to intrude…” 

“It would be the first time it’s ever stopped you,” Dean pointed. “Get a chair and shut up or come back after.” 

Sam wavered. He should go back to his books and his research; he was desperately trying to find out anything he could about the first blade, hoping he could find a way to save his brother from its ill effects. But the image of Dean and Cas looking… normal, human, relaxed and…. happy, was so unexpected and so enticing Sam decided the books could wait, he wasn’t getting anywhere anyway and maybe this was more important, maybe this was what would save his brother, not the lore or the spells but the three of them being a family. 

Sam knew the movie well enough to pick up half way through and somehow watching Leia, Luke and Han take on the Imperial forces made their own struggles seem so much more manageable. Movies promised a happy ending, maybe this time the Winchesters would have one of their own. Maybe. Sam had to keep hoping. 

* * * * 

\- FINISH -


End file.
